A Week in Robots

Robots are among us…

There is a theme with this blog that goes something along the lines of technology, gadgets, robots…Robopocalypse.

One of my favourite google searches is Robots in the news section. I always feel like this way I can get up to date with my technology and robot news and find out exactly what is going on. But this week is special so here is my week in robots…

It’s definately not a hound dog like Rex but this Boston Dynamics creation can walk for 20 miles without needing to stop and “mark it’s territory” on every tree and can even carry up to around 400 pounds!That’s around 28.5 Stone to you and me.

That’s right strap a saddle to this thing and it will even carry my lardy ass.

Boston Dynamics have been doing all sorts of crazy stuff. They recently broke the world speed record for robots by designing a “cheetah” style robot. The Robot runs at a very impressive 18 Mph. We are all just praying they don’t hook these things up to skynet!

Noodle Slicing Robots

No, this isn’t a slightly racist way of describing chinese noodle folk.

A new trend in China has seen crowds of people gathering around Chinese noodle houses. This new breed of helper robots have puposefully been designed to look “sinister” to give each shop a novelty factor that draws people in.

You won’t catch me anywhere near these things, I’ve read far too many books which describe the grisly scenario when the funny, helpful robot decides to “noodle slice” something that isn’t noodles…Ouch!

How long will it be until these “lovely” novelty items come to the UK? I am sure it is only a dumb brit and 1 dragons den idea away.

Speaking the Robot Language?

So in 2012 we have millions of robots all around the world doing some of the worlds most dangerous jobs. Sometimes things just go a bit wrong and everything gets put down to “human error” or a “system malfunction”.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have just given a £1.1million grant to help some techies from Aberdeen solve this problem.

How? by developing a piece of language software that allows humans and robots to have in-depth discussions about why certain decisions were made.

The idea is simple, if humans and robots can talk to one another, Robots can tell humans exactly why they made certain decisions. Putting all the post apocalyptic scenarios aside, the very fact that Robots will be able to not only explain their conscious decisions but also communicate with other robots to ensure they are doing something in the most efficient way, is pretty special.

Ok, so we are going a bit further into the future now but at a recent conference, NASA and the US Military were discussing the idea of healing robots and how the technology is nealing possible to create autonomous healing Robots.

There is no doubt that the technology is growing faster and being applied in a multitude of different ways so the next time you are walking through the woods, it isn’t the bears you should be afraid of.

So there you have it that was our week in Robots, We have them running faster than Usain Bolt, Carry 1 400 pound man through the woods and heal themselves like the T-1000.

Tempted to do this post again in 10 years time and see where we are at…of course by then I will be replaced by an Autonomous version of myself with my brain in a jar and a robot laughing at what used to be the human race.

If you are interested in reading about what will come to pass I recommend this book, It’s a great fictional read that uses real world developments in technology to describe how the Robots will take over:

About Sam Raife

Author of Battletoys.co.uk, I have been part of the SEO world for nearly 6 Years in one format or the other. Now an SEM Manager in Leeds and very much still a lover of all things Tech, Gadgety and all things Marvel.
Expect lots of low priced technology reviews and the occasional SEO tip or two...this blog not being a good example of that.

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